3 Questions to Jumpstart Your Brand Development Strategy
“What is brand development?” That’s a question we get often here at Studio Brand Collective’s Houston headquarters. A lot of small to medium-sized business administrators and entrepreneurs know that brand development is probably important to growing their revenues. They just aren’t sure what brand development actually entails or why it helps.
Fortunately, Studio Brand Collective is here to help! We’re a full-service digital + design agency that guides our clients through every step of brand creation and marketing. Experience has taught us that a brand is far more than a logo or a color scheme. A brand encompasses every experience, thought, and feeling that customers and potential customers associate with your business. If you don’t consciously shape your own brand, it will be shaped for you.
When a Houston business comes to us in need of some brand development, large or small, we tell them all the same thing: The first step toward successful brand development is the creation of a solid, transparent brand development strategy. SBC collaborates with each of our clients to create a brand development strategy that can be executed not just by marketing and branding specialists, but by business administrators, salespeople, office managers, and even business owners to help ensure the survival and success of every brand. You don’t have to be a marketing pro to promote brand development within your organization. You simply have to follow the brand development strategy laid out by our team of creative brand managers.
In order to begin crafted a customized brand development strategy for your organization, we first need to answer three important questions. They’ll help guide our (and your) understanding of the basic principles of brand evaluation and marketing planning.
1. Who are you?
The first step to developing your brand requires a long look in the mirror. Companies begin a process of evolution starting on their first day of business. Why was your business founded? Where does it come from? What are its guiding principles? What’s your vision for the future?
Occasionally, these can be uncomfortable questions for a business to answer. Some find that their business has evolved far beyond the intention of their founders. That’s ok! There are no wrong answers to this question, as long as they are true. The purpose of this first, critical question is simply to define what your brand is and what it stands for. We want to know exactly what makes your organization special and what your customers or clients expect from you. That way, we can clearly communicate your brand’s value to the people who will appreciate it.
Which leads us to…
2. Who is your ideal customer?
In order to properly sing your praises, it’s crucial to know who to sing them to. The idea with this questions is to narrow down the target market for your good or services. Sometimes, our clients here at SBC tell us that “everyone” or “Houston” is their target market. It’s a nice thought, but it’s wrong! Some customers are good, and some customers are a huge waste of time—we probably don’t have to tell you that! Part of our mission is narrowing down your target market to the kind of customers or clients who have and will continue to reliably pay your bills every month. We want to know everything we can about your perfect customer: their age, gender, ethnicity, education, location, wealth, family status, and every other bit of identifying information we can get.
Sometimes, an organization’s ideal customers fit into two or three distinct categories. Sometimes more. That’s great! We’ll help you create different customer profiles, or personas, for each kind of perfect customer that you need to reach in order to succeed and grow your business.
That way, we can answer the question…
3. What’s in it for them?
Now that we’re clear on what your ideal customer looks and acts like, we can answer the most important question of all: Why should they care that you exist? What problems can you solve? What do you provide that motivates people to choose you over your competition?
Oftentimes, we work with marketing clients in Houston who can only guess why their customers choose them. Unfortunately, guesses aren’t good enough! There’s an easy remedy for this problem, however: customer surveys. Remember to survey your best customers only! If your business is new and doesn’t have any customers yet, we can collect much of the same data using focus group testing.
Not all motivators are created equal. Some are more powerful than others! Studio Brand Collective helps our clients to identify the value they provide to customers and communicate that value effectively across many different marketing channels. We’ve assisted some of Houston’s fastest-growing and most successful businesses develop their brands this way. We can help you, too!
Are you ready to get started developing your brand to appeal to your ideal customers? Then stop worrying about it and contact Studio Brand Collective today. “Brand” is our middle name! We’ll conduct a FREE digital brand audit and consultation at no obligation to you. It’s the first step toward building a strong, relatable brand.
Send us a message, here.
